The Best Things We Drank: September 11 - 17

An interesting combination of beers made this week's list. On one end two sour beers, on the other end two darker beers. Each pair also contained one low-to-moderate ABV beer and one on the high end of the booze spectrum.

Bruery Terreux Confession - One of the beers gifted to us at our recent housewarming party, the Riesling characteristics of this variation on their sour blonde ale came out splendidly. Even at nearly 10% ABV this was quite easy drinking and we recommend sour beer lovers seek this out.

Grimm Artisanal Ales Living Daylights - Hailing from New York, Grimm has recently come to the Portland market and this one was shared by a friend who loves sours. A Citra dry-hopped imperial Berliner Weisse (yet only 5.8%), it is also "aggressively dosed" with Mosaic and Simcoe lupulin powders. This may be the first lupulin powder beer we've had and we'll be keeping our eyes open to see what other breweries start experimenting with it, hopefully as successfully as this bottle of goodness. 

Fish Brewing Fish Tale Organic Porter - Bought primarily because it was Thursday (so we wouldn't be negligent on New Brew Thursday ticks) this was a surprisingly rich canned porter with an unassuming label. 5.5% with a medium body it has just the right combination of rich and bittersweet chocolate notes, finishing pleasantly dry.

Mikkeller Beer Geek Vanilla Maple Shake - Mikkeller tends to be hit or miss with our palate but this one hit the right notes with its motor oil look and molasses flavor. If only there had been some sticky buns around to accompany it and perhaps help soak up some of the 13% ABV. Oh well, maybe next time...